No need to apologise, my friend. If I could remember the emoticon for tongue-in-cheek, I would have added it there. Perth is often called "Dullsville" by local residents (younger ones) and some visitors alike. As for me, it's grown too big for my liking. Give me the days when I first arrived and the population was just 750,000 anytime. (Now it's just over 2 million).

Wait till the "Dullsvillagers" go to Canberra! Allow me to tell a joke (mathematical one on Pythagoras' theorem - look it up if you have forgotten) associated with the hippo. An American Indian chief had 3 wives. To the first squaw, he gave an ox hide and to the second a deer hide. But to the third, he gave a hippopotamus hide. Why did the chief give a hippopotamus hide to the third squaw?Answer: Because the squaw on the hippopotamus hide is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides.